Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Wraith Squadron: Star Wars: X-Wing 5 - Aaron Allston

They are the galaxy's most elite fighting force. And as the battle against the Empire rages, the X-wing fighters risk life and machine to protect the Rebel Alliance. Now they must go on a daring undercover mission--as the crew of an Imperial warship.

It is Wedge Antilles' boldest creation: a covert-action unit of X-wing fighters, its pilots drawn from the dregs of other units, castoffs and rejects given one last chance. But before the new pilots can complete their training, the squadron's base is attacked by former Imperial admiral Trigit, and Wraith Squadron is forced to swing into action--taking over an Imperial warship and impersonating its crew. The mission: to gain vital intelligence about Trigit's secret weapons, to sabotage the admiral's plans, and to lure him into an Alliance trap. But the high-stakes gamble pits Wraith Squadron's ragtag renegades against the Empire's most brilliant master of guile and deception.

Are they up to the challenge?

If not, the penalty is instant death.

The X-Wing series is my favourite of the numerous Star Wars novels, and this is one of the funniest. Aaron Allston has a knack for leaving me laughing out loud at all of the characters - and the running jokes, some of which span all of the books. Ewoks come to mind as do a few others.

The X-Wing series of novels is rather broken into two different sets. There`s the Rogue Squadron novels, and then, with Aaron Allston's contribution, the creation of Wraith Squadron. There`s some overlap, between the two, but not much.

In this one, Wedge Antillies takes a group of misfits and makes it work. I love the way they end up working together, even though there are quite a few problem-characters. In fact, it could be said that the whole lot of them are problem characters.

Honestly though, I haven`t laughed as hard repeatedly at a novel series as I have with this one. I've lost track of the times I've read Wraith Squadron and the others over the last years. This is, again a series that I started out by borrowing from the library, and ended up buying after I'd borrowed them all multiple times.

Wraith Squadron introduces us to the characters, and sets up situations for the next several books, but at the same time, it also tells an enjoyable tale in itself. Kell Tainer, Face Loran, Grinder, all of them had me grinning at the least, if not outright laughing.

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About Me

I love books, especially science fiction/fantasy and history books.
Primarily, I read fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction and
non-fiction history books.
As of Spring 2009, I now have my B.A. with my major Classical Studies and my minor in Medieval Studies.
I am a professional back-of-the-book indexer specializing in Classical and Medieval Studies and also in general history. I am quite happy as well to work on most general interest subjects as well. My website is at quillandinkindexing.comWhen I write about the Kobo E-reader, it is information gleaned from my personal experience. I am not affiliated with Kobo in any way.